In between working on gift knitting, I decided to at least finish one of the fingerless mittens I'm working on for me, using the endpaper mitts pattern. (Ravelry link to my project). The knitting went reasonably well, good practice for stranded knitting, but there's just one little snag.
I suffer from irritation sensitivity, sometimes called dermographism. It's a condition that a lot of children have, where irritation to the skin produces symptoms like an allergic reaction, such as hives or itchy spots. And it looks like woolen gloves, especially tight ones like these mitts, set it off. I'm going to try soaking them in shampoo and hair conditioner, in the hope they soften up enough, but otherwise I guess it's back to the fleece or fabric gloves for me, or maybe some less scratchy yarn (I used Sisu sock yarn from my stash) and mitts that aren't as tight.
would soaking the mitts in lanolin oil work to soften the wool ?
would freezing the mitts help to kill any micro-organisms ?
you might try washing the mitts in DAWN dish liquid.
you could get silk gloves from china to wear under the mitts
I’m going to try washing them when they’re finished, and if that doesn’t work I’ll try the lanolin oil you suggest. It isn’t a micro-organism problem.
If I could find a source for the silk gloves I could try that too, sounds like a luxurious solution to the problem!